Electrical power tools and rechargeable batteries may be connected to each other with the aid of an electrical connecting device. Frequently it is a detachable connection. The power tool includes electrical contacts for this purpose (also called plugs), which are inserted into correspondingly designed receptacles on the rechargeable battery when the rechargeable battery is connected to the power tool. However, it is also possible for the power tool to include the receptacles and the rechargeable battery to include the electrical contacts.
Moreover, charging devices having rechargeable batteries are also connected to each other with the aid of an electrical connecting device. The charging device includes electrical contacts, which are inserted into correspondingly designed receptacles on the rechargeable battery when the rechargeable battery is connected to the power tool. However, it is also possible for the charging device to include the receptacles and the rechargeable battery to include the electrical contacts.
Due to the ever greater capacities of rechargeable batteries and the associated increase in the available current able to flow between the rechargeable battery and the power tool, conventional electrical connecting devices, as well as their contacts and receptacles, are reaching their physical limits. Damage to the connecting devices as well as their contacts and receptacles may thus occur. This problem is frequently solved by correspondingly increasing the dimensions of the contacts and receptacles. Alternatively, the current made available by the high capacity rechargeable battery is restricted to prevent possible damage from occurring in the first place. These existing approaches have the disadvantage that they are too big, too expensive and/or too complex to manufacture. By restricting the current, in turn, the full capacity of the power tool or the charging device is not made available to the user.
Another problem with conventional connecting devices is that they are ordinarily not able to be adapted modularly/flexibly to the corresponding capacity or maximum current of the rechargeable battery. Both the manufacture and the provision of a wide range of connecting devices, adapted to the particular capacity or maximum current of the particular rechargeable battery to be used, involve high costs as well as a great deal of management effort.